Halal buthcher in town: Maddington Meats

Asslamualaikum and good morning. Happy Thursday, all! A few steps to weekend, yippee!!!

Are you a Muslim who is looking for halal butcher that offer a wide range of meat? Please come to Centro Shopping Complex, Maddington. And you will find Maddington Halal Meat, just in front of Woolworth. 

Check out their meat that's on special price

If you want to have barbecue, here is the right place to get your supplies. The steak, the rib-eye, and they also have marinated beef and chicken. 

They also have special price on certain products on certain day. I totally forgot the exact amount, but one day, my husband bought six chicken at a very bargain price! The total price for six chicken equal to the normal price of three chicken, 50% off! 

You also can get Lebanese bread supply here. I usually get the Lebanese bread here to make wrap for my husband's lunch. 

Their address:

MADDINGTON HALAL MEAT

47, BURSLEM DRIVE

MADDINGTON,, WA 6109

From Railway Station to Boat Ride

Assalamualaikum all! 

Let's check out how was our weekend!

On Saturday morning, we went to few garage sales. It is our routine to check out garage sale because we love the surprise we get. You never know that you need the item until you found it in the garage sale. For example, we never look for waffle maker, till we found it and now it is our breakfast saver. However, for this week, nothing much attract us. 

Then, off we went to Gosnells Railway Market. Apparently the market situated in the old railway station. The ticket machine and the the railway are still exist. The market is divided into three areas; the wet market where you can find seafood, vegetables and fruits; the food court with many kind of cuisines from Asian to pizza, and some Halal stalls; and the shops - clothes, books, spa, massage house and toys shops. We thought of having our lunch at the food court, but we changed mind and ended up in Perth City. 

Aaron and I

Hubby brought us to a Malaysian restaurant, Insan's Cafe. It was his favorite cafe when he first landed in Perth. He ordered mee bandung and teh tarik for me and he had nasi campur. He bought a box of pizza for the kids from Pizza hut hich is two doors away from the restaurant. The mee bandung was fairly delicious. i miss having mee although it isn't my favorite noodle. The teh tarik wasn't 'kaw' enough. I assume it is the instant teh tarik. Oh I miss Malaysia!

Mee Bandung

Nasi Campur

Later, we walked down the road towards the Bell Tower till we met kangaroo statues and camera -whoring for almost half an hour! In the middle of the day, under hot sun! Haish! And we strolled down the part with big trees. Seriously beautiful and breathtaking. The park led us to the Bell Tower and the Barrack Jetty. Many cruises stop at the jetty, as you can choose to stroll down Swan River, or go to Fremantle which will take up to an hour or just across the river, like what we chose to do. The fare is $2 for adult and free for kids below 5 years old.

This tree is freaking huge!

The view from the jetty looking over Perth City

I'm wearing FAITHFatin Paisley Collection. You can get it here

The journey took several minutes for us to cross the Swan River to South Perth. Immediately after the jetty is a playground. That was where we 'parked' ourselves and the kids dived into the playground. I must say that they totally had fun. What a great family day for us!

View of Perth City from South Perth

Watching over my kids

One leg standing

Hello 2014!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

How did you spend your first day of 2014? 

It was a simple day; relax and intimate family day. 

We eat, we laugh, we play and we rest. 

As most of the malls are closed today, hubby and I decided to stay at home. Although we thought of spending the day at beach, but we changed our mind due to the weather. However, the weather was lovely during the day, but it is pretty cold now, at night. 

Our family hardly have our breakfast at outside. I had a burger in the morning and the kids and hubby had toast bread. And we headed to the Macca's playground. I could tell that Maleec and Aaron really had a good time playing there. They made friends, they ran all over places and had ice cream too. 

As for lunch, we had barbecue at our alfresco. hubby marinated steaks and chicken. We had corns and sausages too. It was nice. Very nice. 

We spent our late afternoon snoring on bed. Everybody on a bed! And now I'm like a zombie; can't get to sleep. Top of all, I'm bless with what I have today, and NOW! Alhamdullillah!

It isn't complete the new year without flashing back on what happened on the past year, and speaking out loud on new resolutions and hope. But to me, I am bless with what I have now and hope nothing but the best in everything. 

How we survive in using electrical goods from Malaysia in Australia

Assalamualaikum and happy Sunday!

When we moved in to Perth, basically I brought everything from Malaysia. As small as spoon and toothbrush to big as king size bed and 6 seater sofa. It is cheaper to purchase them from Malaysia rather than buying in Australia. And plus, my husband's company complimented him with sea shipment and air shipment to Malaysia. We have a container to fill up our belongings and of course I leveraged it.

I brought in the electrical goods as well for the usage in Australia. As Australia's voltage is almost the same as Malaysia, it shouldn't be a problem to use the electrical goods from Malaysia in Australia. But hang on there. Perhaps we wouldn't face any short circuit, but we faced few minor difficulties. First, you need plug converter. This is easily get in Malaysia. We bought mostly from ACE hardware shop. You could get them in Tesco or Carrefour or any hardware shop. 

Plug converter

Second is with the television. Please be informed that Australia had switched off analog TV signals, meaning that only digital TV signal is used. But no worries, you can always get the Top Box to receive tv channels if you are using analog signal TV. We bought the top box from Dick Smith store. You just need to plug in the you TV into the top box and plug in the top box to the antenna plug. With that top box too, you will receive 99 free channels. It is enough for us and we don't subscribe to FOXTEL, the only satellite tv provider across Australia. The monthly fees is high and we don't encourage our kids to watch tv too much. Plus, we can always streaming from internet if we want to watch movies. Problem solved!

Top Box: view from back

Top box: Front view

Another headache is with washing machine. In Australia, they have to water taps; hot water and cold water. But in Malaysia, we have only one; cold water. Therefore, the pipe attached to the washing machine couldn't resist hot water and you'll damage the pipe if you put water running through it. Only plug in your pipe to cold water tap.

In Australia, the outlet water pipe should be attached to the sink. Usually Australia houses have laundry area where there is a sink next to the place where they recommended you to place your washing machine. At the sink, they provided a hole for you to attached your outlet water pipe and water will straight go into the drain. But the washing machine that I brought from Malaysia can't apply that method. The outlet water pipe has to lay down horizontally on the ground. If not, the water can't go up as there is no pressure to make the water goes up. To solve the problem, we bought a pipe that connect to the outlet water pipe to the drain outside of our house. problem solve. But the permanent issue that you have to face is that you have to let the door opens all the time you do use the washing machine. As whenever go through winter in Australia yet, but cold only imagine how cold our house to be as we have to let the door open freely for a good hour during the washing. Haish!

Water inlet

Water outlet hole at the sink, not suitable use for washing machine from Malaysia

Water outlet pipe is connect to pipe extension that help water to be released into drain outside of the house

So far, those two are the problem we face in using electrical goods from Malaysia in Australia. Hopefully this post will help you if you are going to move to Australia from Malaysia. 

The sprinkler, the house owner and me

Assalamualaikum and good evening!

 

How are you? Me fine, super fine. Last night was a sleepless night but magically my energy is at full bar today. Alhamdullillah.

 

The owner of my house just went back from 'inspection'. I'm just kidding. It is not inspection like you had during hostel time. In Perth, usually the house agent will come now and then to check the property, to ensure that it is not vandalized by the tenant. The tenant seldom has the opportunity to get to know the owner of the house as all the communication is via the house agent.

 

But we are the lucky one today because the owner came down to help us to make the house better. You see, now is the transition season from spring to summer. The weather is pretty hot and dry. We humans are not the only creature that suffer, but plants too. Grass is turning to yellow and leaves are turning to brown.

 

The house is equipped with sprinkler. However, I didn't know how to use it till last Monday. And starting from then on, I switched it on everyday until yesterday. I was told by my gardener that there are days that you can switched on the sprinkler as it use bore water. The schedule is according to the house number and my house number is 7, so I can switch it on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. Yippee!!Actually, the gardener came yesterday to trim the lawn and he noticed that the lawn's condition was poor. He failed to setup the sprinkler timing so he called the owner. That's the reason why the owner knocked on my door today.

 

The control panel

 

The owner is a pretty nice chap, different with what I've imagined. It seems that he is happy with us as his tenant. He promised that he will change the current control panel of the sprinkler as we can't setup the timing. With the programmed control panel, we don't have to bother about the days and time when the sprinkler should be working. The cutting edge technology really makes works easier but make we have less connection with the world. As it replace out effort, it takes our appreciation on what we have. If 20 years ago, we will pull pipe to water the plant and lawn, 10 years ago, e made our maid to do so, but now, we let the technology to replace our routine. But that's life, and we are the one who determine on what should lead us.

Check out the programme. Eventually we are using the manual programme

It's pretty sad looking at the grass

The sprinkler is at work

 

When Juma called me in the afternoon mentioning on the owner's visit, I gave a big sigh. I was busy and tired yesterday because I tried hard to finish the remaining work so I can have today just for myself. But yes, sometimes your plan doesn't work. I cleaned up the house, sweep, mop the floor, wiped the kitchen, vacuumed the whole house and cleaning up the outdoor.

 

I haven't prepared dinner yet as Juma will be home in anytime. Till then, take care!

The Whiteman Village

Assalamualaikum and hello. Few weeks ago, we went to Whiteman Park. It is quite a distnce from our house and took us 30 minutes to arrive. It's on the east side of Perth, near to Beechboro.

It is a famous park and the famous Caversham Wildlife Park situated in the Whiteman Park. There are many parks else at the Whiteman Park.

Aaron ran his heart out once he stepped out from the car. They were many families, armed with picnic gear, enjoying the sunny day. We parked our car near to the train station, at Whiteman Village. Maleec, who is obsessed with train, said he wants to have a ride. So off we went. The ride for the whole day cost $2 per adult and free fro kids below 4.

The train ride was fun and the kids were imagining that they were in Thomas the train. We past by the reserve forest and supposed to see wildlife, unfortunately we managed to catch few glimpse of kangaroo.

Later, we brought the kids to the playground. I think Maleec and Aaron really had their fun. They didn't show that they were hungry or sleepy. They played like there is no tomorrow. Unfortunately for me, my tummy was acting as it needs to be fill.

We found the nearest Nando's at Beechboro. There is Woolies in the mall as well. The kids enjoyed their meal and for the record, we managed to finished the food that we ordered. Alhamdulliallah. Syukur. It's a worth trip!

From Kuala Lumpur to Perth

Assalamualaikum and hi. How are you? Great? That's wonderful, alhamdullillah. 

I know, I know, I was MIA for a long while. But I have a good reason for that! Hehehe... Well.. I'm blogging from Perth, Australia! Yes, I moved to Perth on mid August. See?! I've told you I have a strong reason why I didn't blog for quite sometimes. 

Oh, one more thing, please bear with this post, it's a lengthy one. 

Remember that I told you that I went to South Korea? Well, that was the time when my husband told me that he is transferred to Australia. And I had a very short time to plan the transition. And I had to do it all by myself since my husband will be a month ahead us in Australia. 

The most important thing is house. So I started to browse the houses in Perth. By doing so, I became familiar with the type of houses, the rental rate and the location. Mainly in Perth there are three types; bungalow, town house and condominium. The condos mostly in Perth CBD area. I prefer bungalow because I want to have my own lawn. The rental rate also varies based on the location, size of the house and age of the house. But please beware that Australians pay their rental weekly. And for the location, I try to find the place that is near to Perth CBD and also public transport. The houses that near to the beach area (Fremantle, Hillarys, etc) are more expensive than the one in the east side. Then I narrowed down my findings by putting the priorities on the small elements like the total bedrooms and bathrooms, the maintenance services (mainly on the lawn) and house facilities (e.g heater/AC, dish washer,  walk in cabinets). I sent to my husband the link of the houses that met my criteria. And my husband will go through the link and do the shortlist and send to his agent. Together with the agent, they will hunt the houses that are still available. It is important that your agent make appointment with the house agent beforehand. If you are interested with the house, then you can submit t the house agent along with your reference. If your application is successful, meaning you get stay there!! Our first application was unsuccessful and it was really wasting time since we have to wait for the result of the application to be out before starts looking for a new one if it is unsuccessful. 

If you intend to move to Perth, Australia, I suggest you make the research on the house before anything else. It is important that we have the idea on the value for the rental we are paying. Most of the houses in Perth offer small bedrooms. The second bedroom is hardly fit queen size bed. 

Second thing I did was listing the item that I need to bring to Australia. We were lucky because his company provided us with a container to chunk in our belongings. I grouped my needs into 3 categories; items to send via sea, items to send via air and items to carry during our travelling to Perth. For things to be send via air, mostly they are kids stuff and cooking utensils. I also brought the bedsheet, some toys, some clothes and shoes. These the items that my family mostly need while waiting for the complete belongings to arrive. While waiting for the sea freight items to arrive, we rent most of the big items such as washing machine, tv and bed. 

Other stuff of us mostly would go via sea, excepts for food. I carried the food by myself when we traveled to Perth. Perth customs are very particular on food. There are many forbidden food such as dairy product and fruits. Any food that you are bringing have to be declared upon arrival. The stewardess will hand you the form upon landing for you to fill up. Take your time to think of the items you are carrying because the penalty is big if you fail to declare. 

I also made another list on the items that available in my house currently and the items that need to buy. I bought most of the furniture. That's the reason why it is important to find the house because from the layout plan of the house, we can figure out what we need for the house. We also could figure out the color scheme and the size of the furniture. 

I was lucky because the time I shopped for the furniture was Ramadhan month. I really enjoyed the sales everywhere. But the down part was I have to do all the survey by myself since hubby was already in Australia. 

The third thing that bother me is what I leave in Malaysia. I have my house, cars and some other small commitments (e.g internet line, phone line, Astro). We didn't sell the house and the cars. We arranged our immediate family members to take care of them. We terminated the phone, internet and Astro service. 

I think that's all that I can think of for now. I'm not able to share with you the visa process since my husband's company did it to us.

Please ensure that you watch the packing people pack your belongings. Sometimes the way they handle is is not as per we expect.

It is nice if you can arrange you house to make room and space for packing work. This will make packing work goes smoothly and efficiently. 

Place your items together in their groups. Example, cooking utensils, toiletries, books, toys, etc. This will help the packing people to pack accordingly and to make you life easier when you unpack.